After the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress was
left without the power to levy taxes and therefore could not
pay the
soldiers. Afraid that rioting soldiers might harm the government
body in Philadelphia, delegates decided a location change was
necessary. Congress thus fled across the river to New Jersey,
settling down
in
the dignified collegiate edifice of Nassau Hall, which became
the Capitol of the United States from June to November
1783.

Ordinary meetings of government officials took
place in the upstairs library,
but ceremonial
meetings were held in the prayer hall (now the Faculty Room).
It was in Nassau Hall that the Continental Congress officially
received
word about the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which formally
ended the Revolution. In October, Congress received the first
foreign
minister accredited to the independent United States, Peter
John Van Berkel from the Netherlands. George Washington also
came to Princeton to receive the official thanks of Congress
for his wartime service, at which time the trustees commissioned
his portrait.

In 1956, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative three-cent
stamp in orange and black to mark the bicentennial of Nassau
Hall's construction. In 1961, Nassau Hall was declared a National
Historic Landmark.